1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of logistics and product flow management and more particularly to visual control systems that permit routine material transactions.
2. Description of the Related Art
The modern economy depends on the transfer of products and information between various sites that can be next to each other or on the other side of the globe. For example, modern manufacturing processes may require building one component of a complex device in one country and shipping that finished component to another country where it is integrated into a more complex device. One example is the hard drive industry where a hard drive consists of various components such as a motor, a read/write head and a magnetic recording disk. For economic reasons a company building a hard drive may think it is advantageous to build a read/write head in one country and ship that finished head to another country where it is integrated into a hard drive. In order to make this process efficient, the read/write head manufacturing facility must have a fast reliable flow of product through it as well as the hard drive manufacturing facility that relies on receiving the finished read/write heads on schedule without having to store excess inventory. Reliable and quick communication within a site and between these sites is important to making the global economy function.
Similarly, the distribution of finished goods has become much more dependent on reliable and quick communication. Many companies are insisting on distribution networks that require manufacturers to warehouse goods and have the goods available on demand. These types of distribution networks are called just-in-time (JIT) Hubs. Management of these distribution centers can be problematic because of the conflicting requirements that each JIT Hub has enough supply available to meet customer demands but not have too much stock on hand that it takes away inventory from other JIT HUBs also needing the inventory.
Inventory replenishment becomes even a bigger problem when the warehouse and the point of use are not in the line of sight of each other. One reason why the problem is compounded when the warehouse and point of use site are not in each other's line of sight is because of inadequate communications. When two sites cannot communicate efficiently the process slows down and this leads to problems. Another problem is that limited space at point of use site can lead to problems because the point of use site may take too long to reorder parts and the warehouse may not react quickly enough when they are not in each other's line of sight.
Conventional methods of routing materials and transacting the routing have many problems. These problems have created many needs including the need to 1) balance the production rate to the customer demand, 2) use the correct number of people for the required production rate, 3) insure that equipment runs only at the rate of demand, 4) keep only a small stock to maintain a smooth flow, 5) build quality control into the production process, 6) restructure the whole system to improve performance, 7) provide features such as email alert, report generation, undo function, etc. required by users.
Therefore a system and method providing for replenishing low inventory quickly and reliably so that the smooth process flow can occur throughout the entire distribution network is needed. Additionally, a real time demand pull system from the point of use to the point of replenishment to improve the speed and flow of information across the factory to achieve rhythm, flow and balanced of the factory operation is needed.